According to the dynamic of population statistics released on June 5 by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan's population fell 269,488 in 2014 — its largest-ever yearly demographic decline. Its total fertility rate (the average number of births a woman gives over her lifetime) dropped to a record low of 1.26 in 2005 and after a slight recovery to 1.43 in 2013, went down again to 1.42 in 2014. With its total fertility rate far below the level of 2.07 needed to maintain the current number of people, Japan's declining population is casting a dark shadow over its future.
At the same time, the aging of its population is taking place at a rapid pace. The rate of elderly to productive-age population was 1 to 9.1 in 1965 but shifted to 1 to 2.2 in 2014 and will worsen 1 to 1.2 by 2050. Japan has been proud of its universal health care system, which was inaugurated in 1961. But the nation's social security system, including health care, is endangered by its huge financial burden.
Some European countries are taking measures aimed at raising their population over several decades. But Japan has lagged far behind despite its more serious situation. Under the "Abenomics" policy, some brightness has come back to the Japanese economy. But the country will not be able to restore the sustainability of its economy and the responsive power of its fiscal policy unless it promotes powerful structural reforms to cope with its graying and shrinking population.